After two and a half years of consistently writing the Artist of the Week, I emailed a large group of students to gauge interest in the segment. It was time to let my peers experience the unparalleled joy of interviewing passionate creatives.
Surprisingly, one of the first replies wasn’t from a writer, but a profile request. Ada Reddington ’28 sent a long, very persuasive argument on why she’d like to be interviewed by me. Admittedly, it was audacious. It was something I would’ve done as a first-year. I loved it.
I immediately asked for her availability. When we finally sat down for the interview, Ada was beyond beaming. She said excitedly, “I came out of the womb dancing. I went to the School of the Arts in Rochester, NY. It was a performing arts high school, and being able to dance every day convinced me that the link between education and dance is what I want to pursue.”
Ada continued, “By the end of my first week, I was already in three dance companies. I was gonna be performing at Philadelphia City Hall. The next week, I was already choreographing. I loved it, because I had just arrived on campus, and the dance community swallowed me up. You’ll talk to a lot of people in the dance department, and they all feel very similar.”
It was hard not to feel Ada’s movement. Her hands were uncommonly expressive and fluid in their movement as she explained her passion for Swarthmore’s dance culture. It was clear that it wasn’t that Ada enjoys dance as a hobby, but rather that it serves as a necessary aspect of her self-identity.
“I love it when my teachers describe [dance] as a language,” Ada said. “When you think about dance, it’s something that unites so many people. It’s a worldwide language. Every culture developed some kind of dance because they just understood that movement and the body is a legitimate medium of expression.”
She continued explaining the culture and interwoven narratives surrounding dance. As a member of Rhythm N’ Motion (RnM), Ada enthusiastically highlighted their rich history and culture: “It’s rare to see academic spaces specifically highlight African diasporic dance, so most of the genres featured are hip hop, jazz, and salsa. At RnM, it’s going to be highlighted. That’s super cool, because it’s all student run, student directed, student choreographed.”
She continued, “When I pulled up to auditions, I could just sense the emphasis on family and tradition. We also give back to the community. Through fundraising, we’ve been supporting a safe haven for women who are currently recovering from abusive relationships.”
However, RnM isn’t the only student-led dance company Ada moves in: “Ember Dance Company is very similar. It is also student-run, and it allows students to choreograph and perform. It’s more ballet, or contemporary-based, but there’s an emphasis on dance classes, performance, and campus engagement.”
As she spoke about her experience within the dance department and student groups, Ada emphasized the importance of collaboration over competition. It was evident she values the diverse styles of her colleagues, and she doesn’t believe in placing dance on a binary scale. Rather, she finds the variety in movement, perspective, and messaging inspirational.
“I think the other thing is that dance isn’t a sport; it’s a performance. It doesn’t matter who’s the best at it. It’s still going to be performed. It’s an art form that’s supposed to be observed and enjoyed rather than competed for. There’s no winning in dance. You’re just watching, taking in, and appreciating it,” Ada said.
As an appreciator of the art form, I’ve attended almost every dance showcase in the last three years. There’s something undeniably captivating about the body becoming the art form herself. It’s incredibly empowering. Dance presupposes we are the canvas, and our movement is the paint. No matter our external appearance, we can all learn to use the brush to create a masterpiece.
Ada expanded upon the same metaphor: “when an artist sits down and they look at the canvas, they already have a painting, they just need to find it. I feel similarly about choreography. The rhythm and the movements exist, it’s just a matter of discovering them on your body and your group’s bodies. My favorite aspect of dance is putting my language on other people. I tend to try improv in a studio to see what comes up naturally. Then it just comes down to refinement. It’s so fun because nothing that you create is ever going to be the same twice.”
Instead of imposing her language onto others. Ada works with other dancers to create a sound, feeling, and movement that is uniquely attuned to their own expression. After all, dance is a form of community collaboration among a group of impassioned creatives.
Ada recounted how she was recently inspired by the revolutionary possibility of dance: “I had the opportunity to attend an education conference in New York. While I was there, I visited the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre exhibit at the Whitney Museum. They’re a very renowned, predominantly black dance company in the center of New York. They completely revolutionized the field of dance during the civil rights era. Seeing how they so effectively used dance as a tool for social activism has inspired me.”
She continued, “Ideally, I would love to start a Cultural Center for Dance and allow disadvantaged youth to access the power of dance, and communicate their voices to the public. I’m excited to see where arts education takes me, and I hope I can execute my vision.”
As a first-year student, Ada still has a wealth of time to explore her diverse interests and their intersection with dance. However, she emphasized that dance is a part of her life that she’ll never be able to divorce from. I agree. It’s her language.
Being an artist requires no institutional boundaries. The only prerequisite is to love creativity. Therefore, I’m sure that wherever Ada moves, dance will breathe through her.
